200 Eggs a Year Per Hen: How to Get Them. A Practical Treatise on Egg Making and Its Conditions and Profits in Poultry
Title
200 Eggs a Year Per Hen: How to Get Them. A Practical Treatise on Egg Making and Its Conditions and Profits in Poultry
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Date
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Clarence C. DePuy. Syracuse, NY
Subject
Excerpt
We hear a good deal said in these days about the 200 egg hen. Some are disposed to deny her existence, and to class her with such fabulous or semi-fabulous birds as the phoenix and dodo. Others admit that she has appeared in isolated instances, but is by no means common. Others contend that if she should appear in large numbers it would be a misfortune rather than otherwise, for such excessive egg production would weaken her system so that her eggs would not hatch healthy and vigorous chicks ; and the 200 egg hen would be in constant danger of extinction from her own success.
One thing is certain, however, the 200 egg hen is no myth. There are many of them scattered about, and the tribe is on the increase. My reputation for truth and veracity is reasonably good ; yet I am willing to make oath that I had a flock of fourteen White Wyandottes that from October to October gave me a total of 2,999 eggs, an average of a little better than 214 eggs apiece. There are others who can beat this. Men are already talking of the 250 egg hen, and before we realize it she will be here.
I do not see how a man can draw an arbitrary line, and say how many eggs a hen may or may not lay in a year. The hen in her wild state lays from six to ten ; the average farmer's hen not over 100; while on egg farms the average is raised to 150. But why stop here? There are 365 days in a year; and I do not see why a pullet that is fully matured, that comes from an egg-producing strain, that is properly fed and cared for and kept steadily at work, may not lay at least 200 eggs in that time.
I am prepared to admit that a hen will not lay 200 eggs a year without constant and intelligent care. I am also prepared to admit that in some cases the number of eggs extra a hen will lay where she has this constant and intelligent care will not pay for the time consumed, and that it may be more profitable to get an average of say 150 eggs a year than a larger number. But I believe that in the poultry business, as in every other, it is well to have a high ideal. The man who inscribes on his banner, "Two Hundred Eggs a Year Per Hen," and then comes as near it as he can, will make more money and have more fun than will the man who is content to take what comes along.
One thing is certain, however, the 200 egg hen is no myth. There are many of them scattered about, and the tribe is on the increase. My reputation for truth and veracity is reasonably good ; yet I am willing to make oath that I had a flock of fourteen White Wyandottes that from October to October gave me a total of 2,999 eggs, an average of a little better than 214 eggs apiece. There are others who can beat this. Men are already talking of the 250 egg hen, and before we realize it she will be here.
I do not see how a man can draw an arbitrary line, and say how many eggs a hen may or may not lay in a year. The hen in her wild state lays from six to ten ; the average farmer's hen not over 100; while on egg farms the average is raised to 150. But why stop here? There are 365 days in a year; and I do not see why a pullet that is fully matured, that comes from an egg-producing strain, that is properly fed and cared for and kept steadily at work, may not lay at least 200 eggs in that time.
I am prepared to admit that a hen will not lay 200 eggs a year without constant and intelligent care. I am also prepared to admit that in some cases the number of eggs extra a hen will lay where she has this constant and intelligent care will not pay for the time consumed, and that it may be more profitable to get an average of say 150 eggs a year than a larger number. But I believe that in the poultry business, as in every other, it is well to have a high ideal. The man who inscribes on his banner, "Two Hundred Eggs a Year Per Hen," and then comes as near it as he can, will make more money and have more fun than will the man who is content to take what comes along.
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